Former Alberta NDP MLA charged for COVID-19 vaccine website breach
Posted June 24, 2022 2:29 pm.
Former Alberta NDP MLA Thomas Dang is being charged by the RCMP after admitting to hacking into a government health website.
RCMP say he’s being charged under the Health Information Act for trying to access private information in the Alberta Health Services vaccine records system.
Dang said earlier this month that he would not face charges due to being cleared by an RCMP investigation. Instead, he added that he would have to pay a fine.
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RCMP clarified that Dang will be in court in July and if convicted he will be fined up to $200,000.
Dang was alerted to a flaw in the vaccine system from a constituent about possible loopholes that were allowing access to private health information on the province’s COVID-19 vaccine website.
After running into barriers in attempting to breach the vaccination site, he then used premier Jason Kenney’s name, birth date, and vaccination dates to access the records of another person in the province, before alerting the government to the issue.
Dang resigned from the NDP caucus when he became aware of the RCMP inquiry in December 2021.
He has been sitting in the house as an independent but says he wants to return to caucus.
He is scheduled to appear in court on July 27.
–With files from Tom Ross and The Canadian Press
